Spirituality in the “Syndromes and a Century” Film Essay

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The movie “Syndromes and a Century” vividly portrays the attitude of three Buddhist monks towards healthcare and doctors’ behavior in a hospital. The movie portrays that spiritual hierarchy is taken for granted in Buddhist notions of cause and effect. Within each lifetime, some people are more virtuous, more capable in spiritual matters and in book learning, more compassionate, and less self-centered than others.

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Such capacities and conditions, which are specific to each living being, are not random but derive from the logic of karma (‘act’ or ‘action’), in which one’s past actions produce today’s results so that the past is present in very concrete ways. The movie involves one scene when one of the monks is playing the guitar while two others play with medical equipment. It is not neglect of modern norms and traditions but a response to unethical behavior of medical staff drinking and kissing during their working hours. They do not value healthcare seeing it as inappropriate and useless. Personal development and purity of thoughts, joy, and gat are the main ‘drugs’ accepted by Buddhists.

The entire system is driven by the ‘specialness’ of the being that is capable of choosing its own rebirth. According to the discourse of Buddhism, health manifests due to a logic that is inscrutable from the point of view of ordinary beings; their alterity and their always already-announced ‘special’ status likewise lend opacity to all of their activity. Unity of body and mind is the main spiritual doctrine in Buddhism. It is of utmost importance to bear this in mind in the face of controversial or dismaying incidents that concern emanations.

It is important to value spiritual and religious diversity because it will help medical staff to understand the attitude towards health and predict possible difficulties in communication. Buddhist practices also accumulate spiritual merit and help tame the mind. But for most Buddhists, meditation refers to more than this. Having read books and attended seminars, classes, and meditation practice with masters, most Buddhists are at least familiar with some of the range of techniques that come under the rubric of meditation in Buddhist discourse. Medical staff should accept and understand religious practices to avoid unpleasant situations and insults.

The movie portrays that some practices as taught by Tibetan lamas to their students emphatically work on the whole person, an idea conveyed by the conception (body speech and mind). Through purifying and transformational exercises, this tripartite whole is transmuted (or, in some traditions, restored) to the enlightened state, where the body, speech, and mind are wholly perfected. Many are explicitly engaged in various kinds of meditation on a regular basis. While the ‘enjoyment body’ manifestations, which include high-level satisfaction, Buddhists possess bodies of rainbow light and are only rarely perceptible to exceptional human beings, these same bodhisattvas may emanate a human (or other) form in order to benefit others.

Spiritual diversity is a part of religious diversity, but it is more difficult to recognize and understand it. For one, it is an excellent example of the way in which the spiritual diversity of social life is generalized, synchronized, and fixed under a conceptual category, i.e. ‘culture’ or ‘religion, ‘ that is itself then reified into a static ‘entity’ that appears to exist a priori in the world. Buddhists deny many western practices but value the choice and personal freedom of everyone.

Culture is perceived as the Occident’s essence inverted, priorities of progress and materiality having been radically rejected. Buddhist normative values become part of one’s internal dialogue, a dialogue through which a Buddhist identity is created. Like meditating, attending ritual events, and undertaking retreats, reading about Buddhism furthers a sense of confidence in calling oneself a Buddhist. Thus, Western civilization and practitioners enter Buddhist worlds both through their (text-mediated) imagination and by their self-conscious engagement with ‘experience.’

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References

Syndromes and a Century (2006). Dir. by Apichatpong Weerasthakul DVD. Strand Releasing.

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IvyPanda. (2021, August 25). Spirituality in the "Syndromes and a Century" Film. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spirituality-in-the-syndromes-and-a-century-film/

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"Spirituality in the "Syndromes and a Century" Film." IvyPanda, 25 Aug. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/spirituality-in-the-syndromes-and-a-century-film/.

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Spirituality in the "Syndromes and a Century" Film'. 25 August.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Spirituality in the "Syndromes and a Century" Film." August 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spirituality-in-the-syndromes-and-a-century-film/.

1. IvyPanda. "Spirituality in the "Syndromes and a Century" Film." August 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spirituality-in-the-syndromes-and-a-century-film/.


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IvyPanda. "Spirituality in the "Syndromes and a Century" Film." August 25, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spirituality-in-the-syndromes-and-a-century-film/.

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